Showing posts with label Creative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creative. Show all posts

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Review



Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Feature

  • Walks you through the basics of macro photography, whether you're capturing an insect, a flower, a close-up of the texture of a pine cone, or more
  • Shows you how to overcome the challenges of this type of photography, such as using the appropriate equipment and how to handle focus, depth of field, and exposure
  • Takes you beyond the fundamentals to help you develop your own creative style
  • Informs and inspires you with the author's own stunning examples of macro photography
Product Description

The art of macro photography-photographing small objects or super close-ups of small sections of big objects-yields fascinating results, but shooting at this level brings its own set of challenges. Now you can shoot close-ups with confidence and creative flair with this information-packed guide.

Renowned photographer Harold Davis provides pages of field-tested techniques on focus, depth-of-field, exposure-even the appropriate equipment to use for this unique niche of digital photography. The book includes stunning and intriguing examples of his work to illustrate concepts.

  • Walks you through the basics of macro photography, whether you're capturing an insect, a flower, a close-up of the texture of a pine cone, or more
  • Shows you how to overcome the challenges of this type of photography, such as using the appropriate equipment and how to handle focus, depth of field, and exposure
  • Takes you beyond the fundamentals to help you develop your own creative style
  • Informs and inspires you with the author's own stunning examples of macro photography

Join the vast and beautiful world of small photography with this essential guide.

Amazon Exclusive: Photography Tips and Techniques from Harold Davis


How to Use Shadows to Enhance Your Composition
How to Use LAB Color for Black and White Effects
Professional Photography Techniques from Harold Davis

Amazon Exclusive: Interview with Award-Winning Photographer Harold Davis

We hear you’ve written some new digital photography titles. What’s the story behind these books?
Wiley Publishing is releasing three new books of mine, Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques , Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques , and Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques . My idea with these books was to help people become better photographers by presenting the subject of digital photography in a different way.

What’s different about your approach?
They say that cameras don’t take photos, people do. It’s really true. Someone with a great eye can take masterful photos with an inexpensive camera. Therefore, it is important to know something about photo technique, but the really amazing thing is that we can conceptualize and come up with these bits and bytes that make up a photo—and they can be meaningful to people. I try to help people come up with images that are relevant and meaningful. Cameras and hardware are just tools.

What’s with all the photos in these books?
Well, everyone likes to look at striking images, so one thing my photos do in these books is get people’s attention. However, the photos play another role as well. Each photo in my book is accompanied by the story of how the photo was made and the technical data related to the photo. That way, if you’re not ready to dive into the text itself, you can learn a lot just by browsing the photos.

My feeling is that you truly do learn about photography by looking at photos. It’s much more important to look at images you admire and try and figure out why you like them than it is to read about photography. The photos in these books are baked into the DNA of the teaching strategy. By browsing through the pages, someone can learn a great deal and have an enjoyable visual experience at the same time.

What’s the most important thing that readers can get out of your new books?
I want to inspire readers to be the most creative and best photographers they can be. If you pick up one of my books, I hope you can make use of the technical content and see how the photos relate to some of your own work. The most important thing, however, is to take the ideas in the book, get out there, and do some really peddle-to-the-metal creative photography.

The essential guide for digital macro photographers everywhere

The art of macro photography-photographing small objects or super close-ups of small sections of big objects-yields fascinating results, but shooting at this level brings its own set of challenges. Now you can shoot close-ups with confidence and creative flair with this information-packed guide.

Renowned photographer Harold Davis provides pages of field-tested techniques on focus, depth-of-field, exposure-even the appropriate equipment to use for this unique niche of digital photography. The book includes stunning and intriguing examples of his work to illustrate concepts.

  • Walks you through the basics of macro photography, whether you're capturing an insect, a flower, a close-up of the texture of a pine cone, or more
  • Shows you how to overcome the challenges of this type of photography, such as using the appropriate equipment and how to handle focus, depth of field, and exposure
  • Takes you beyond the fundamentals to help you develop your own creative style
  • Informs and inspires you with the author's own stunning examples of macro photography

Join the vast and beautiful world of small photography with this essential guide.


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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Review



Capture the beauty of the world around you with this professional advice

Landscape photography inspires millions of photographers. If you're one of them, you'll find new insight into landscape photography in this book by professional photographer Harold Davis, as well as tips, tricks, and technical advice to help you improve the quality of your photos. You'll learn to use lighting and composition creatively, choose and use appropriate equipment, look at your subject matter in a new way, and even when to break the rules in order to capture the best image of all. Illustrated with the author's own spectacular landscape photos.

  • Landscape photography intrigues and inspires photographers, but there is more to getting great landscape photos than many photographers expect
  • Professional photographer Harold Davis teaches tricks and techniques that will enhance your skills
  • Explains how to approach the subject creatively, choose and use appropriate equipment, and refine photographic technique to create spectacular landscape shots
  • Looks at how lighting, texture, and composition affect landscape imagery
  • Lavishly illustrated with the author's own photos

Landscapes have long been a popular photographic subject; this book helps you advance your skills as a landscape photographer.

An Amazon.com Exclusive Introduction from Author Harold Davis

Dear Amazon Reader,

I’m passionate about landscape photography. I love getting out, traveling, finding new vistas, and photographing them. But, there’s a surprising paradox with landscape photography. On the one hand, this kind of photography might seem easy: It isn’t hard to find spectacular landscapes, no specialized gear is needed, and on its face, landscape photography doesn’t seem technically difficult.

On the other hand, as Ansel Adams put it, “Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer, and often the supreme disappointment.” Great landscape photography is, in fact, far harder than it looks.

Part of the trick is being in the right place at the right time. But even if the scene you are witnessing is sublime, there’s no guarantee that you’ll bring back compelling digital landscape imagery without the right creative ideas, techniques, and tips—which is where Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques comes in.

I’ve always loved landscape photography, and in the course of my career I have had the opportunity to photograph a wide variety of landscapes from many perspectives. I’ve pursued my love of the landscape by hiking solo across the Brooks Range—the northernmost Mountain range in Alaska—crossing ranging torrents with my camera perched precariously on my back and the rest of my gear on handmade rafts. I’ve gone hungry in my pursuit of the wilderness landscape. I’ve dangled from small planes and helicopters, lashed in with a harness, to photograph urban and wild landscapes from above. And I’ve sought the dark spaces of the night, to photograph landscapes and show them in ways they haven’t been seen before.

Digital has changed almost everything about the tools of the landscape photography trade, and how captures are processing in the digital darkroom.

My goal in Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques is to be your companion and guide in landscape photography. I work with you to find the right locations for your kind of landscape photography, and help you figure out the right time to be there. I share my best creative ideas about landscape photography with you, and explain the equipment, tools, and techniques you need to master. Finally, I show you how I process my landscape work in the digital darkroom.

Each of the photos in this book can be used as idea generation for your own work—how you might approach a specific kind of landscape to make spectacular photos of your own. I’ve included the story behind each photo in the book, as well as full technical data about the captures. Like other books in my Creative series, Creative Landscapes is intended to be useful as an idea book.

Creative Landscapes is divided into four parts. As you’ll see, there’s a great deal of material that covers a lot of ground:

Part I: The Tao of Landscape—Tao is a philosophy with ancient roots that refers to the primordial essence of things, the natural order of existence, and the fundamental aspects of the universe. My approach to landscape photography involves embracing the Tao of the world, and this section begins a conversation about integrating one’s work holistically with the world around us and the demands of modern life.

Part II: Tools & Techniques—Explains in detail the camera settings you need to know to make the most of your landscape photography opportunities.

Part III: One World, Many Landscapes—Photographing a mountain landscape is different from photographing a desert—and both are different from capturing a seascape, or the city as landscape. This section explores different considerations to keep in mind depending upon the kind of landscape you are photographing.

Part IV: Landscapes and Post-Processing—With digital photography, taking the photo is only the beginning of creative image making. In this section, you’ll learn to use RAW processing, Photoshop, and HDR techniques to improve the creative impact of your landscape photos.

I hope you enjoy Creative Landscapes: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques. I hope it encourages you to try new techniques. Be adventurous, and seek out awe-inspiring vistas. Explore the world around you, as you capture your own creative landscapes.

Best wishes in photography!

Harold Davis

Landscape Photos from the Author

Bridge and Stars at Night
(Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)
Yosemite Morning
(Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)
Yosemite in Snow
(Click to see larger image and the story behind the photo)


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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second

Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second Review



The first book in the Understanding Photography series, Understanding Exposure, was a runaway best-seller, with more than 250,000 copies sold. Now author Bryan Peterson brings his signature style to another important photography topic: shutter speed. With clear, jargon-free explanations of terms and techniques, plus compelling “before-and-after” photos that pair a mediocre image (created using the wrong shutter speed) with a great image (created using the right shutter speed), this is the definitive practical guide to mastering an often-confusing subject. Topics include freezing and implying motion, panning, zooming, exposure, Bogen Super Clamps, and rendering motion effects with Photoshop, all with helpful guidance for both digital and film formats. Great for beginners and serious amateurs, Understanding Shutter Speed is the definitive handy guide to mastering shutter speed for superb results.


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Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Creative Digital Transformations

The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Creative Digital Transformations Review



The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Creative Digital Transformations Feature

  • ISBN13: 9780240815312
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Award-winning photography/design team Harold and Phyllis Davis are back with a brand-new volume in their new Photoshop Darkroom series. Picking up where their best-selling first book left off, The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Advanced Digital Post-Processing will show you everything you need to know to take your digital imaging skills to the next level.

Great photographers know that the best images begin well before the shutter clicks, and certainly well before Photoshop boots up. Harold takes a step back, and shares his helpful tips for capturing the most compelling images possible by keeping in mind what type of post-processing you'll do before you start shooting. You'll also find complete coverage of important topics such as compositing, working with layers, and HDR. Packed with tons of eye-popping images which have won Harold national acclaim, this is a fantastic resource for photographers who want to think outside the box and create truly stunning artwork.

  • Compatible with any version of Photoshop
  • Useful case studies break information down into condensed, real-world examples which are easy to follow and put into practice immediately
  • Images and supplemental material are available for free on Focal Press's website

Amazon Exclusive: Selected Techniques from The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Creative Digital Transformations

These images show some of the techniques explained in The Photoshop Darkroom 2:

Kirsten
I used multi-RAW processing to build up this striking portrait with a dark background. Photoshop’s retouching features smoothed the skin and helped enhance the eyes.
Sunny Side Up
This macro photo of water drop reflections and refractions was enhanced using partial desaturation and the soft light blending mode.
Sea Palm Forest
This image of sea palms (kelp) in the surf is a stacked composite view with photos taken over a period of time combined in Photoshop.
No Yolk
This photo composite started with a shot of an empty eggshell, and an entirely separate shot of a wasp. In Photoshop, I used an LAB color adjustment to turn the wasp wings green, then composited the wasp into the eggshell.


Amazon Exclusive: A Letter from Harold and Phyllis Davis on The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Creative Digital Transformations

Dear Amazon Readers,

How would you like a Photoshop book that is one part inspiration, one part nuts-and-bolts techniques, and 100% as visually gorgeous as a 21st-century Photoshop book should be? That’s our idea behind The Photoshop Darkroom 2: to inspire you so you can create your best imagery with the tools you need.

There’s really no secret sauce here. Our earlier book, The Photoshop Darkroom: Creative Digital Post-Processing has been hailed as “the best Photoshop book ever,” “easy to use,” and “fun!” We’ve used the same approach in The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Creative Digital Transformations. We don’t try to cover everything: we explain Photoshop from the perspective of what we really do every day in the course of our professional lives. We are not interested in bells and whistles for the sake of bells and whistles; we are interested in getting things done. We believe that having fun and being inspired is part of the point of Photoshop, and we’ve tried to make every page in our book both fun and inspiring.

We often get asked two questions about The Photoshop Darkroom 2: First, how does this book relate to the first Photoshop Darkroom? And then, do I need the latest and greatest version of Photoshop to get the most out of your book?

These are good questions.

The Photoshop Darkroom 2 and the original Photoshop Darkroom are companion volumes. Each one is meant to be read on its own. Since we didn’t want to repeat ourselves too much, in some places in The Photoshop Darkroom 2 we refer you to the first book for more in-depth information about certain topics. But you certainly don’t need to read them in order.

As the subtitle, Creative Digital Transformations, suggests, The Photoshop Darkroom 2 emphasizes the portions of Photoshop that involve changing the nature of what is shown: retouching to remove flaws and enhance beauty, making the unseen visible, and photo compositing to create new worlds.

The Photoshop Darkroom 2 was written using the most up-to-date software available at the time of writing, Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Lightroom 3. A few of the features specific to these versions are discussed in the book. However, for the most part, the techniques shown in The Photoshop Darkroom 2 (as with the first Photoshop Darkroom) involve core features of Photoshop such as layers and masking that have been available for a long time.

If you are new to Photoshop, The Photoshop Darkroom 2 is designed to get you up to speed quickly. If you are an old hand in the digital darkroom, we think you’ll find some new techniques in The Photoshop Darkroom 2--and, more importantly, some new ideas about how to approach Photoshop and the digital future.

We hope our book helps you along your path as a photographer and digital image creator. Enjoy!

--Harold and Phyllis Davis


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Friday, August 5, 2011

Creative Digital Monochrome Effects: Go Beyond Black and White to Make Striking Digital Images (A Lark Photography Book)

Creative Digital Monochrome Effects: Go Beyond Black and White to Make Striking Digital Images (A Lark Photography Book) Review



Joe Farace is an award-winning photographer with more than 30 books and 1,600 articles to his credit. So there’s no one better to take monochrome into the digital age. Whether you’re shooting digital black and white from your camera or converting color photographs to monochrome on the computer, you’ll discover an array of unique, innovative, and inspirational techniques suitable for shutterbugs of every level. Farace explains what kinds of software programs are best, and how to use them to manipulate your photos in diverse ways. He also discusses various in-camera effects including toning and soft focus. The detailed information and instruction cover everything from creating traditional looking black-and-white or sepia images, to adding color selectively for a one-of-a-kind, fine-art approach.


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Monday, June 13, 2011

Off-Camera Flash: Creative Techniques for Digital Photographers

Off-Camera Flash: Creative Techniques for Digital Photographers Review



Professionals and advanced-level amateurs seeking to push the envelope and enhance the creativity of their shots are shown how to add mood and manipulate color in their images with this guide. Using a technique known as off-camera flash, digital photographers discover how to alter a viewer’s perception through the use of shadows to mask certain details or to draw attention to a specific feature with a simple beam of light. From a survey of the gear required to create these effects and a detailed description of how the basic techniques are executed to more challenging instruction such as close-up techniques, on-location portraiture, black-and-white photography, and capturing motion, this handbook offers digital photographers step-by-step directions for picking up the tips and tricks to set their work apart.


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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Review



Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques Feature

  • Provides practical composition basics as well as the artistic tips and tricks eagerly sought by digital SLR camera lovers, who are growing in number as DSLR camera sales continue to grow
  • Explores the fundamental rules of composition-then how to break those rules to take captivating and unique images
  • Informs and inspires you with the author's own gorgeous examples of landscapes, portraits, close-ups, and other photos that illustrate his concepts
  • Helps you jump-start your creativity by showing you new ways to see
Product Description

Sometimes you get the best results by breaking the rules, but first you have to know what the rules are! In this indispensable photography guide, renowned photographer Harold Davis first walks you through the recommended guidelines for composing great shots with your DSLR camera-and then shows you how to break free, build your own unique style, and compose beautiful images with confidence.

  • Provides practical composition basics as well as the artistic tips and tricks eagerly sought by digital SLR camera lovers, who are growing in number as DSLR camera sales continue to grow
  • Explores the fundamental rules of composition-then how to break those rules to take captivating and unique images
  • Informs and inspires you with the author's own gorgeous examples of landscapes, portraits, close-ups, and other photos that illustrate his concepts
  • Helps you jump-start your creativity by showing you new ways to see

Go beyond the basics and create a photography style that's all your own with this must-have guide.

Amazon Exclusive: Photography Tips and Techniques from Harold Davis


How to Use Shadows to Enhance Your Composition
How to Use LAB Color for Black and White Effects
Professional Photography Techniques from Harold Davis

Amazon Exclusive: Interview with Award-Winning Photographer Harold Davis

We hear you’ve written some new digital photography titles. What’s the story behind these books?
Wiley Publishing is releasing three new books of mine, Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques , Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques , and Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques . My idea with these books was to help people become better photographers by presenting the subject of digital photography in a different way.

What’s different about your approach?
They say that cameras don’t take photos, people do. It’s really true. Someone with a great eye can take masterful photos with an inexpensive camera. Therefore, it is important to know something about photo technique, but the really amazing thing is that we can conceptualize and come up with these bits and bytes that make up a photo—and they can be meaningful to people. I try to help people come up with images that are relevant and meaningful. Cameras and hardware are just tools.

What’s with all the photos in these books?
Well, everyone likes to look at striking images, so one thing my photos do in these books is get people’s attention. However, the photos play another role as well. Each photo in my book is accompanied by the story of how the photo was made and the technical data related to the photo. That way, if you’re not ready to dive into the text itself, you can learn a lot just by browsing the photos.

My feeling is that you truly do learn about photography by looking at photos. It’s much more important to look at images you admire and try and figure out why you like them than it is to read about photography. The photos in these books are baked into the DNA of the teaching strategy. By browsing through the pages, someone can learn a great deal and have an enjoyable visual experience at the same time.

What’s the most important thing that readers can get out of your new books?
I want to inspire readers to be the most creative and best photographers they can be. If you pick up one of my books, I hope you can make use of the technical content and see how the photos relate to some of your own work. The most important thing, however, is to take the ideas in the book, get out there, and do some really peddle-to-the-metal creative photography.

Take your best shots with this invaluable guide to composition for DSLR cameras

Sometimes you get the best results by breaking the rules, but first you have to know what the rules are! In this indispensable photography guide, renowned photographer Harold Davis first walks you through the recommended guidelines for composing great shots with your DSLR camera-and then shows you how to break free, build your own unique style, and compose beautiful images with confidence.

  • Provides practical composition basics as well as the artistic tips and tricks eagerly sought by digital SLR camera lovers, who are growing in number as DSLR camera sales continue to grow
  • Explores the fundamental rules of composition-then how to break those rules to take captivating and unique images
  • Informs and inspires you with the author's own gorgeous examples of landscapes, portraits, close-ups, and other photos that illustrate his concepts
  • Helps you jump-start your creativity by showing you new ways to see

Go beyond the basics and create a photography style that's all your own with this must-have guide.


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